The Holly’s Gift
by
Natalie Highland
Chapter One
Of course, they would want him to return. Even here on the Subcontinent, he’d heard his mother screaming when his brother had married that dance hall girl. His friend James had told him all about his father’s apoplexy and his mother’s fit when his brother had maintained that he was in love and for once in his life he was going to do precisely as he pleased.
Even to losing the duchy and his title.
So now, even though the season for safe sailing was over, he had a missive in his hands demanding his return by his birthday. St. Nicholas’ Day.
He had no interest in the title, no interest in the duchy. Nicholas and his father had a strained relationship at best, and the man had always sworn that he would never see the lands and title in his son’s hands, even to the dissolution of the duchy itself.
It had hurt when he was a young man. Now he simply wanted to live his life as he’d made it here on the subcontinent.
And he was being summoned home to sweep up after his brother. As ever.
Nicholas folded the letter and replaced it in the envelope, trying to figure out if he would respond, and if so, how. His mother- he hadn’t seen her in close on a decade, and as much as she had never stood for him against her husband, she was still his mother, and he should see her one more time before she passed.
He would reject cleaning up after his brother, though. Nicholas had been next thing to disowned when he’d left the continent, and he would ensure that his father remembered that.
He knew that the only reason he was still in the line of succession at all was because his father was more businessman than family man. Heir and a spare, that was all he was to the man, and Nicholas knew he was so much more than just a spare.
But his mother. She was not to blame for her husband’s foibles, or for his outstandingly poor family management.
So he would go, see his mother and tell his father that if he wished to see the mess his brother had made cleaned, then he’d best get to scrubbing.
That would set his Grace on his ear for certain.
* * *
The voyage was terrible; he’d known it would be since the season was wrong for the crossing. No one in their right mind crossed the channel between the continent and the subcontinent in the fall and winter months. That sailing should only be done in the spring and summer.
By the time they made the crossing, everyone was ill with the tossing back and forth, and the ship itself was only barely holding together. But make it, they did, and the ship bumped the edge of the dock, squeaking against the bladders protecting the edges of the wood while the passengers praised the gods and the captain for getting them there safely.
Nicholas took a few minutes to pull himself together before he disembarked but knew that he was still pale and looked dreadful no matter how he tried to hide it.
And as he’d suspected, the only one waiting for him was his mother. His father would not have lowered himself for the journey to the docks, not even to greet his son.
“Hello, Mother,” Nicholas bowed to her, watched her pale and flinch and reach for his face. “I’m alright.” He turned his head out of her reach and watched her flinch again.
“My son,” she sighed. “Welcome home?”
“This place has not been home for years, Mother,” Nicholas said, trying to keep his voice gentle. “I am here at His Grace’s behest, but only to see you before I return to the Subcontinent in the spring.”
“But you—”
“No,” he shook his head. “If my brother has decided that love is worth more to him than the duchy, I will applaud him and then I will go home.”
“You are the heir now, Nicholas,” his mother protested.
“And if his grace wishes the mess my brother cleaned, he had best get to scrubbing.” Nicholas closed his eyes briefly. “I was disregarded for years, Mother. I have absolutely no interest in the duchy.”
“Come home, Nicholas,” his mother nodded to the footman, who opened the door to the carriage. “We can discuss it with your father.”
The ride to his parent’s townhouse was excruciating. His mother was trying desperately to change his mind, but Nicholas was having none of it. Reaffirming his lack of interest in cleaning up after his brother as he’d done his entire life until he’d left for the Subcontinent.
